DIY home renovation: the hall bathroom

 First, the movie:

I did my best over the years to never go into the hall bathroom. I didn’t even want to clean it, because it never looked clean no matter what I did. It was just gross.

Hubs and I were planning to renovate both baths, the kitchen, and the back porch, so first we got estimates from two companies who would do the work for us. The first was a decent price, but we felt a lack of communication between us and “the guy.” The second was a huge company who sent over a renovation guy, a kitchen designer guy, and a plumber. We were put off right away because they wanted to know our “budget” up front. So, naturally we figured they’d push their price as close to that number as possible, if not reach a tad over it. Then they worked up a clunky, poorly working 3D demo for us where we made changes that they said would definitely lower the price. But their price was ridiculous.

So, hubs got the crazy notion that “we” could do it ourselves. I thought he was nuts. But what the hell. If nothing else, I can get a blog post out of it, right? 

And here it is.

George did most of the work. Anthony and I helped with clearing out the debris and loading it up into the Bagster bag. You pay about $30 for the bag and a bit over $100 for the haul away (which could be based on weight for all I was involved). 

We had a wood guy come in and replace some wood on the outer wall, but George did the rest. Anthony helped with the moving the old tub and toilet out. And he helped move the new ones in, which is a lot more work that it might seem. You put the tub in, make marks and measurements. You take it out. Make some temporary changes and put it back in. Then you take it out and if you’re lucky and your changes worked, you can now make them permanent and put the tub in for good. If not, well, you keep going, in out in out. 

I helped with the painting. And I chose the picture for the medicine cabinet door, but Hubs had to put it on for me. What a pain in the butt. And I got to purchase all the accessories. 

While Hubs claims that the work (especially the grout which Anthony and I have agreed to take the fall for) was done by untrained chimpanzees, I think it looks fabulous! And, as Danny says, the next project will therefore look like it was done by newly trained chimpanzees.

One problem we had was that as soon as we started making a bunch of purchases at Lowe’s and Home Depot, our credit card company put a hold on our card. Apparently, one of the things credit card thieves go for is home improvement products. How odd.

I suppose the fact that I didn’t have to do much hard work and just got to take pictures and make a movie, it’s easy for me to say it was great and bring on the next project!

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